Guidance on political party membership

Background

This guidance is published by the Hokorian Assembly for political parties to follow in handling membership applications.

The Hokorian Assembly will only permit a citizen to be an official member of one political party at a time. In order to enforce this, the Hokorian Assembly maintains a registry of all party memberships.

Setting out membership criteria

Political parties are allowed to have their own membership policies and criteria, as long as they are in accordance with the law.

Under law, the criteria for political party membership is that the applicant is:

A Hokorian national (Hokorian citizen, Royal Hokorian citizen or Serenian-Hokorian citizen)
Aged 14 or over
Not already a member of another political party

Handling membership applications

Political party membership applications are handled by the political party and not the Hokorian Assembly. It is the party’s responsibility to handle member information in accordance with the law.

A great way to host political party membership applications is to use Google Forms and Google Sheets. These services are easy to use and are highly trusted.

What to include on membership applications

On your membership application, you should ask for:

The person’s full name
The person’s date of birth
The person’s Hokorian nationality (whether they are Hokorian citizen, Royal Hokorian citizen or Serenian-Hokorian citizen)
The person’s email address
Whether the person is already registered with another party

You may want to ask for additional information to help determine whether the applicant meets your own membership criteria.

Having access to membership applications

All applications should be handled in accordance with the law. It may be useful to set out an internal party policy on how membership applications.

It is advised that you create a privacy policy or document that explains:

The information you collect
Why you need the information
What you use the information for
How long this information is retained
Who you share the information with
How the person can request a copy of the information you store about them
How the person can request deletion of the information you store about them

You should check any applicable laws and regulations to see if you have any more duties in regard to data protection.

Additionally, you may wish to include the following general disclaimer on your application:

We may share your full name, date of birth and email address with the Hokorian Assembly to confirm that you are allowed to register with our political party. Membership verification is a service of the Hokorian Assembly and is subject to the Government’s Data Handling Policy at https://hokoriagov.net/help/policies/data-handling-policy/.

Charging application or membership fees

Political parties may charge a membership fee, whether that is a one-time fee or a recurring fee. It is the political party’s responsibility to maintain itself and set fees.

Once you receive a membership application, you should determine whether the applicant meets your own criteria before sharing the application with the Hokorian Assembly.

You should share the applicant’s full name, date of birth and email address with the Hokorian Assembly. This will allow us to check our records and see if the applicant is allowed to become a party member.

You should share this information securely with registrations@assembly.hokoriagov.net. If you do not feel certain about the security of an email, do not share any details and contact the Hokorian Assembly for advice.

If these details are shared insecurely, you may face sanctions.

How we’ll respond

The Hokorian Assembly will respond with one of three messages:

Confirmation that the applicant can become a member
Notification that the applicant cannot become a member
Notification that we are unable to determine whether the applicant can become a member- further instructions will be included

Affirming party membership

If we confirm that the applicant can become a member, we will automatically record them as a member of your political party. This is why it is important that you only send us application details if the applicant meets your own criteria.

Handling members leaving

Members must inform you if they wish to leave your political party- you are required to allow all members to leave upon their request.

Additionally, you must inform the Hokorian Assembly that a member has left your political party.

You should share the applicant’s full name, date of birth and email address with the Hokorian Assembly. This will allow us to record them as having left your political party.